INTEGRATED EXPERIMENTAL AND NUMERICAL EVALUATION OF BANANA FIBER-REINFORCED NATURAL RUBBER COMPOSITES FOR BLAST-RESISTANT TYRE APPLICATIONS

This study presents a comprehensive experimental and numerical investigation into banana fiber-reinforced natural rubber (NR/BF) composites designed for mine-resistant military tyres. The composites were fabricated via two-roll mill compounding and compression molding, with varying fiber and rubber modifier (RM) contents. Mechanical characterization, including tensile, compressive, hardness, and tribological tests identified the NRBF50RM25 formulation as optimal, achieving a peak tensile strength of 22.7 MPa and superior wear resistance. Finite Element Analysis (FEA) was conducted in ABAQUS/Explicit using a Mooney-Rivlin hyperelastic model calibrated from tensile data, and blast loading was applied using the CONWEP method. Results revealed that NRBF50RM25 reduced peak stress by 34% and displacement by 45% compared to neat rubber, while significantly enhancing energy absorption. A parametric simulation study under increasing TNT mass and varying sheet thicknesses established the composite’s blast survivability threshold. The prototype tyre was fabricated using the optimized formulation and vulcanization protocols. The strong agreement between experimental data, numerical simulations, and fabrication outcomes confirms the potential of NR/BF composites as sustainable, blast-resistant materials for defence-grade tyre systems. Future work will involve full-scale explosive testing to further validate performance under real-world conditions